Indians and Red Sox will play doubleheader

Published: Sunday, April 23, 2000

BOSTON {AP} For a team that didn't have much success against Pedro Martinez the last time, the Cleveland Indians seem downright eager to face him again.

"We know that we've got him again right out of the chute," first baseman Jim Thome said after the first of two rainouts on Friday and Saturday forced the teams to schedule a 1:05 p.m. doubleheader on Sunday. The other game will be made up when the Indians visit Boston Sept. 19-21 in the heat of the pennant race.

"In a fun way, I think it's great," Thome said. "Everything means everything in this game, regardless of what they say about early season games. You still have to win games in April, and you still have to play these guys."

The Red Sox have had three consecutive games postponed due to rain, and Martinez was supposed to start each time. When he does face the Indians, he will do so for the first time since he pitched six innings of no-hit baseball against them to lead the Red Sox to victory in the fifth and deciding game of the 1999 American League Division Series.

"This rivalry has a big-time feeling. Coming in here on the flight Thursday night reminded me of October," Thome said. "It's great. Them, the Yankees and us are the same. We all like to play each other, and we all like the rivalry."

The Red Sox, who only had two games postponed all of last year, had Thursday's series finale in Detroit postponed before returning home to find the same storm drenching Fenway Park.

At the same time that the team postponed Friday night's game they moved Saturday's start back to 3:05 p.m. from 1:05 p.m. But that wasn't late enough, as rain soaked Boston throughout the day.

Only tickets marked Sunday, April 23 will be honored; Red Sox spokesman Kevin Shea said tickets for Saturday's game should be exchanged for a future date.

Intermittent rain is forecast for Sunday. Martinez will face Chuck Finley in the first game with Pedro's brother Ramon going against Chuck Nagy in the second.

"In my opinion, you should always have a great desire to face the best pitcher in the league - and that's Pedro right now," third baseman Travis Fryman said. "But that was then.

"We had a great opportunity to do something back then, and it's something that we should have taken care of back then. But I haven't looked back on that game and had any thoughts about exacting justice because of it."

The Red Sox are coming off consecutive shutout wins at Detroit, 7-0 and 10-0, and have allowed just one run in the last five days a 1-0 loss to Oakland last Monday. They're 8-2 in their last 10 games, outscoring their opponents 71-32.